Category: LifeCategory: Life

I recently asked “What’d we learn this year,” and Shane Valle offered this inspiring lesson:

“Of the 19 times someone performed one of my pieces of music (I’m a composer) this year, 17 of those times were because I directly reached out to an individual musician or ensemble, not because they were passively consuming or interacting with me or my content on social media.”

Finding musicians and ensembles to approach takes time and effort, and results aren’t promised. Posting to social media is much easier, and gets us off the hook – we get to say “hey, I tried!”

If the work we’re doing is magic, if it has the power to transform and uplift and inspire, then the work required to get it out there goes beyond just the work.

(more…)

We have potential fans beyond the social media platforms, we just have to let them know we exist!

1/6/2026 – Rabbit Cavern, “Do you want to be friends with a crow?”

1/3/2026 – Elise Granata, “Flyering as a Spiritual Practice“

12/29/2025 – Mel Mitchell-Jackson

12/15/2025 – Mel Mitchell-Jackson

After listening to you chat with Amelia on Off The Grid I made a bunch for my tutoring offers! Here’s one in San Francisco after a few months of sun and fog fade!

---

12/14/2025 – From WBEZ Chigago (link via Jen):

The 51-year-old graphic artist, Derek Erdman, swears there’s no catch behind his quirky side project. Instead, he describes his public art stunts as acts as civil disobedience, or “civil d” for short.

(more…)

I’ve learned over two decades of writing online is that the half-way okay blog post becomes a foundation not just for better blog posts, but for better conversations.

The ideas keep coming so we must keep writing.
We become tuned to the frequencies that expand these ideas.

An example; I went out for a donut and iced coffee, and had a conversation with the shop owner which becomes a blog post.

I’ve written probably 100 posts since then, which led to more conversations, a cycle that adds seasoning and fresh ingredients to the next blog post or newsletter, which can’t help but bubble up in conversation because I’m living and breathing this subject matter.

Then, what I’ve found, is taking these conversations into new spaces of varying discomfort bolsters the ideas.

Talking with a friend is safe, but things feel different on a group Zoom call with people you don’t know, or on a podcast, or on a panel in front of 30 people.

I’ve been writing about ditching social media for years. Then I started hosting weekly Zoom calls with readers back in 2023, joined other online community calls, did live stream interviews, and appeared on a handful of podcasts.

Then I did something even more uncomfortable by setting up at punk rock flea market and talking with people face to face about leaving social media.

These conversations, in varying “live” settings, sharpened my ideas and my ability to express them.

This is how Cory Doctorow can riff about horrible corporations for over an hour and make it look easy.

We can all do this if we stop spending five hours a day on our phones.

We lose in followers, but we gain by honing our craft, finding our unique ways to express the ideas and concepts that will resonate with the right people.

Booking gigs in 2025 isn’t rocket science. You don’t need to outrun a bear, you just need to run faster than you friends.

Bookers get buried under a gajillion emails a day, and they’re not wading through your 10 links to find your music. If you want better shows, you need to make their life stupidly easy.

1. ONE LINK
   Your job is to get your music in front of a booker fast. One link. your site. Your best stuff at the top. No scavenger hunt across Instagram, Dropbox, WeTransfer, whatever. Don’t send them to a platform that forces them to scroll — they won’t.
2. REMEMBER THE BASICS ON YOUTUBE
   YouTube is the biggest music discovery engine on the planet. Bigger than every social platform combined. If someone finds you there and actually likes your work, don’t make them guess how to reach you. Put your damn email in your About section. Baseline professionalism.
3. JUST BE COOL
   This game runs on relationships. If you’re a pain, it doesn’t matter how good you are, nobody wants you on the gig. But if you’re solid, kind, and easy to work with? You get invited back.
   Don’t be a punisher. Show up in your local scene. Talk to people. Support other artists. Build real friendships.

I saw someone marketing their music production services in text, outlining the discount, the expiration of the offer, and who might be interested.

No evidence, just details.

Their website showed the albums they worked, a display of musicians who trusted them with their art, their vision.

That’s evidence.

Along the same line are folks who offer 1:1 coaching calls, which is something that’s built on trust. It’s hard enough to get on a Zoom call with someone you know, right?

That’s why I put a video on my 1:1 booking page, and I tell clients to do the same.

Show evidence of how you talk. Your cadence. Your tone. Make it wonderfully obvious that you’re someone they can trust enough to hit “book a call.”

You don’t need more details, you need more evidence.